Brazil’s Farmers Seen to Start Planting Soybeans Early

(Businessweek) – Farmers in Brazil’s Mato Grosso state took advantage of early season rainfall to plant about 2 percent of their soybean acreage for 2012-13, according to Soybean & Corn Advisor Inc.

Mato Grosso farmers are seen planting 7.89 million hectares (19.5 million acres) of the oilseed, Hinsdale, Illinois-based Soybean & Corn Advisor wrote in an online report today. Field work is expected to progress slowly this week on a forecast for dry weather, it said.

“Many farmers are still cautious about planting their soybeans due to the drier near-term forecast,” the consulting company led by Michael Cordonnier wrote. “The farmers who have started planting their soybeans are generally those who want to plant a second crop of corn or cotton after the soybeans.”

Brazil is expected to overtake the U.S. as the largest soybean exporter in 2012-13, after the worst U.S. drought in 50 years damaged crops and hurt yields, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture projections. Soybean prices have advanced 25 percent in Chicago since the start of the year.

Farmers in Parana state were allowed to start planting Sept. 21, and have seeded 3 percent of 2012-13 soybean acreage, which is expected to increase 4 percent to 4.58 million hectares.

About 30 percent of the main-season corn crop in Parana has been planted, with acreage expected to fall 13 percent to 847,000 hectares.

“The average corn planting pace in Parana over the past three years for this date is about 35 percent, so corn planting has been a little slow due to drier weather earlier in September,” Soybean & Corn adviser wrote.

In Rio Grande do Sul, farmers have planted 35 percent to 40 percent of their corn crop, according to the company.

To contact the reporter on this story: Rudy Ruitenberg in Paris at  rruitenberg@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Claudia Carpenter at  ccarpenter2@bloomberg.net